Sony Xperia XZ Premium and XZs Shoot 960fps Slow Motion

Phone Cameras

by Jakub HanFebruary 27^th, 2017

Sony has announced their new flagship smartphone, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and the smaller Xperia XZs, with significant improvements to their cameras. Sony’s new Motion Eye™ is capable of 960fps super slow motion.

Around three weeks ago, we informed you about Sony’s new smartphone image sensor being in the development. Back then, Sony already presented some real-world 1080p super slow motion footage, so we could have guessed it would not have taken long for a new finished product to hit the market. It seems this is just what happened with the unveiling of their new flagship smartphone, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and the smaller version, named the Xperia XZs.

Sony has combined their new memory stacked image sensor with a redesigned Sony G lens and an image processor, and decided to market this new smartphone camera system as Motion Eye™. Its main feature is the 960fps super slow motion capability. According to TheVerge this is however limited to 720p resolution and 0.18 seconds (180 milliseconds) filming time which gives you around 180 frames of super slow motion footage. It is still impressive as other current smartphones only top at 240fps.

The good thing is that lately more and more smartphone manufacturers have been dropping the pixel count in their cameras, which leads to bigger pixels and therefore better lowlight capability. Sony have now dropped the resolution of the earlier Xperia XZ from 23MPx to 19MPx in their new Xperia XZ Premium and XZs.

Here’s the official promotional video for the new smartphone camera system, from the Sony Xperia YouTube channel:

Another cool feature is predictive capture. The camera can start buffering images one second prior to pressing the shutter button and enables users to choose from four shots.

Motion Eye Camera – Key Specifications

• 19 Megapixel resolution
• 1/2.3” Memory stacked image sensor
• 25mm f/2.0 Sony G lens
• 960fps Super slow motion recording capability
• Anti-distortion shutter
• Pixel size: 1.22μm
• Maximum ISO 12800 (Photo) / 4000 (Video)
• 5-axis stabilization – Steady shot

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Other specifications

• 5,5″ 4K HDR display
• Second (front) camera 13MPx, 22mm, f/2.0
• Water resistance (IP65/68)
• Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
• 4GB RAM/64GB internal ROM memory
• Weight: 195g (6.88 oz)
• Dimensions: 156 x 77 x 7.9 mm (6.14 x 3.03 x 0.31 inch)

The full specifications list is available on Sony’s website.

Sony Xperia XZs – Other specifications

• 5,2″ 1080p display
• Second (front) camera 13MPx, 22mm, f/2.0
• Water resistance (IP65/68)
• Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor
• 4GB RAM/32 or 64GB internal ROM memory
• Weight: 161g (5.68 oz)
• Dimensions: 146 x 72 x 8.1 mm (5.75 x 2.83 x 0.32 inch)

The full specifications list is available on Sony’s website.

Pricing and availability have as of now only been been published for the smaller Xperia XZs. According to PhoneArena, this smartphone will be available on April 5th 2017 for $699.

What do you think of Sony’s new smartphone camera system? Let us know in the comments below.